Great Britain’s Fed Cup captain Judy Murray admits she is champing at the bit to see Laura Robson back in action.
Robson has not graced a tennis court since January 2014 when she lost in the first round of the Australian Open, the 21-year-old undergoing surgery on her left wrist last April.
She is not far off from a comeback but declined a wildcard entry for this month’s Miami Open as she bids to be fully fit in time for Wimbledon.
It wasn’t that long ago that Robson was sitting 27th in the world rankings and Murray is keen to see her back in action sooner rather than later, adamant that she still has plenty of time on her side to climb the rankings once again.
“We are hoping Laura Robson will be back very soon from the wrist injury that has kept her out for 15 months,” said Murray, speaking at the SSE Arena at Wembley, where she is a mentor for SSE’s Next Generation programme, which provides vital financial and development support to 100 young athletes from across the UK and Ireland.
“I think she and Heather Watson both have a lot of potential and they are both very different in the way that they play but Laura has a number of top ten wins already.
“She has big potential and she loves the big stages and the big courts which is what you need to be a top player.
“She has incredible weight of shot as well so she’s always had potential and it is easy to forget that she is still only 21 because she seems to have been around for a long time.
“But I’m sure she’ll be frustrated by her injury and gagging to get back into action and let’s hope she gets back to her best soon.”
Robson sat out Great Britain’s Fed Cup defeat to Belarus last month, a loss that ended their hopes of progressing to the Fed Cup World Group II play-offs.
And Murray admits she needs Robson and Watson at the same time if Great Britain are going to dine at the top table once again.
“The only time the players really come together is when we play fed cup and we play in the Euro Africa zone in February,” she added.
“It’s hard to get out of that zone because you have to win four matches against four different countries across four days which is quite a tough thing to do.
“So it’s difficult to build any kind of team spirit or momentum when you are only playing once a year because if you don’t get out of that zone you don’t play again until February.
“I have really enjoyed fed cup but I need Laura and Heather to be fit at the same time and for the last two years I’ve only had one of them.
“One has either been injured or ill and we don’t have great strength in depth on the women’s side so that’s something we need to be addressing.”
SSE’s Next Generation programme partners with SportsAid to provide financial support and training to the sports stars of the future. Keep up to date with the latest @SSENextGen
